 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
Dear Reader, UNCLE NORM was written in honor of all the characters I've had the pleasure of knowing and being associated with in life - starting with my Uncle Norm. I dedicate the novel to those souls who have made my life such an interesting venture. TCMIII On numerous occasions I have been asked why I chose to write a work of fiction using cryonics as a theme. I spent the bulk of my adult life in the field of medicine developing technology that extended and enhanced life. This philosophy always appealed to me, just as if one were to give one’s child a treatment of antibiotics to save and extend the child’s life, one could put oneself into a state of biostasis using the science of cryonics after one was medically pronounced dead, (similar to being anaesthetized for an operation) to potentially extend one’s life. It seemed to me it was only time that was a mitigating factor in an individual’s decision, not religion, morals, etc. So, I become a cryonicist. Soon after that I had two dear friends murdered and in each case the perpetrator was either exonerated through the flaws in the legal system, or was never caught at all. I got to thinking how far along the technology of bio-cryogenics has come and I wondered if either of these two murder victims had been suspended (frozen), who they would have pointed their fingers at if revived using cryonics. I wondered, could cryonics be a deterrent to crime? Ergo, I came up with the plot and theme for Palmer Lake and dedicated my work to one of the murder victims. I would like to point out that I did not become a cryonicist to cheat death forever, only to extend and enhance my present life. Absolute death is an event I one day look forward to experiencing, however, it is also something I would like to be able to choose on my own terms and time frame if possible. TCMIII If one were to view all aspects of Thomas McCollum's professional and avocational life, one might be very tempted to call him a Renaissance man--albeit with a strong entrepreneurial bent. Wisely McCollum leaves all such pretentions to others, preferring the doing rather than the talking about. McCollum spent his formative years in Wayzata, Minnesota and San Jose, California. Sports consumed his childhood. In his early twenties, amateur sports car racing became one of his passions. In the late 1960s and early '70s, he raced the Can-Am series, and also raced one of the fastest 427 Cobras in the world. Later he took up tennis and became an amateur tournament doubles player. A further desire for adventure took him to Pamplona, Spain where he ran with the bulls. During a summer spent with Malaysian royalty in Northern Borneo, McCollum hunted man-eating crocodiles, bagging an eighteen-foot reptile as a trophy. Now, leaving such activities behind, McCollum is a self-confessed golf addict. In the mid-fifties, McCollum and his family moved to California. It was here that the peripatetic McCollum exhibited the first signs of what would be a lifelong entrepreneurial talent. He worked his way through college doing a variety of jobs, including selling insurance, and even selling his pen and ink sketches and watercolor paintings on street corners. McCollum was an idealistic youth, like so many at that time, and readily participated in civil rights movements around the country. McCollum entered medical school, but when a biochemist friend developed a product called the Endoplate, an astute McCollum quickly saw the commercial potential. Leaving school behind, he joined his friend, who had formed Kallestad Laboratories -- later an American Stock Exchange company -- and in sixteen years it became one of the largest immunodiagnostic labs in the world. The eventual sale of the corporation satisfied McCollum's initial monetary goals, and in 1980 he retired to Marbella, Spain to live out all the fantasies of his youth. He has camped, safaried, and traveled to every continent on earth. In 1985, McCollum returned to the American business world, and founded and was Chairman of the Board of HML Medical, Inc., a California-based company that manufactured coronary angioplasty balloon catheters, and a patented balloon catheter for diagnosing bronchial problems in AIDS-infected patients. In 1990 he sold the company and returned to Spain, with a deep desire to finish his life as a writer. McCollum's first novel, Tainted Blood, was published in 1995, albeit highly controversial, it was an immediate success. He followed that with the dark drama, Whipsocket, in 1998. Palmer Lake, McCollum's third novel was released in 2002, explores the possibilities of life after medical death by the use of cryonics. In a delightful, tongue-in-cheek medical, murder mystery, McCollum titillates the reader into believing, through scientific explanation, how the world's richest man is one day revived from being cryonically suspended for thirteen years, to capturing his killer in a court of law. McCollum, who proclaims he is no cryonics expert, has none-the-less done his research and has visited some of the top cryonics facilities in the world in his quest for an enjoyable story. Not only is McCollum a cryonicist, but he dedicates Palmer Lake to his former friend, Nicole Brown Simpson, who he wished could have been cryonically suspended so that one day she might reveal her killer. McCollum divides his time between San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and Panama City, Panama. He is currently working on his fifth novel. |
 |